Current Projects in Uganda

Vanilla is native to South America, with Mexico being the major producer way into the 18th century. While the vines grew and flowered in other countries they did not bear any fruit because native South American bees and humming birds were not there to pollinate them. Manual pollination has solved this problem.

Vanilla was used by native South American Indians to add flavour to chocolate.

Today it is used widely in the food industry as flavouring, as well as in the cosmetic industry as one of the most potent perfumes.

Coetzee Natural Products provides marketing, promotion, training, certification and extension services to our contracted farmers, many of them women and socially disadvantaged.

Our objective is to continuously grow our business through developing and working closely with rural communities to assist them in growing quality organic vanilla.

Our activities strongly focus on creation of wealth and employment in rural areas. We also educate and assist in understanding and developing care for the environment.

The beauty of the project lies in people's permanent association with nature and the environment, creating strong bonds of appreciation for nature as the source of income that will eventually make a difference in the rural community life.

The spirit of the programme is to give African smallholder farmers a chance to establish themselves and grow through developing the exports of organically grown products to European, USA and other markets.

Farmers are paid a substantial premium for their crop and they get a very transparent price setting from CNPU who buys directly from the contracted growers.

The vanilla variety grown in Uganda is vanilla fragrans syn planifolia (Bourbon type)

The vanilla flower is hand pollinated by the growers.